Wednesday, 26 October 2016

Is University Now The Norm?

Because after paying 9k a year you still are not good
enough.

Every 18 year old across the UK knows
exactly what they want to do with their a-levels. For some people it is
University. The big scary thing that is pushed onto every person since about
the age of 11. At least in my sixth form I could not go a day without hearing
the word “University”.

Is it a huge pressure for 18 year olds now
a days that didn’t exist not even ten years prior? This time thirty years ago I
could bet my bottom dollar that I would be enrolled into some kind of secretary
course while my male counterparts were being pushed into university. But now in
the modern I am studying
Sociology without a clue with what to do next.

Now more and more people are choosing to go
to university with the idea that it will help you achieve a better job and
salary in the future. (See meritocracy in the previous post to see how this
indeed is an unfair system). Now Universities are packed to the brim with
students from all over the world and now more and more people are getting
degrees, and you might have heard that now more than ever your degree choice and
where you study is mattering more. Those who go to the Russell group
universities appear more elite than those who go to the redbrick.

So if an undergraduate degree is now the
norm, what is next? Before you know it further stresses will be put on the
youth to not only carry on their education to 21 but now 22. Master degrees
will now become the norm. After that? Doctorates. After that? Who knows?

Because of this normalization it means that
the middle class are gaining more and more dominance in society and the working
class are once more falling short. Not only that but mental health issues will
continue rising.

As societies thirst for capitalism and more
money grows this situation will only get worse. Now more than ever with each
job you get more and more applicants with better and better CVS.